Puzzles, including three-dimensional puzzles, are well-known in the art and exist in a number of formats. The most well-known format, perhaps, is where the puzzler arranges geometric shapes bearing visual material into a predetermined design or visual format. In one format, in order to solve the puzzle, the puzzler arranges the individual puzzle pieces into a predetermined geometric form, i.e., the individual pieces interlock or interact with each other to create a geometric form, such as a cube, a pyramid or the like. In another format, the puzzle is comprised of individual geometric forms having visual material, such as colors or other indicia on a plurality of said forms' exterior surfaces. The puzzler arranges the individual forms into a larger geometric form so that when the individual forms are in a predetermined arrangement, the visual material creates a predetermined design or visual format.
Numerous examples of the latter format exist in the art, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,347 (Shettler); U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,333 (Shanin); U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,795 (Flanigen); U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,949 (Thompson); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,151 (Klopfenstein). In all of these embodiments, the puzzle consists of a plurality of cubes; the puzzler arranges the individual cubes into a larger three-dimensional cube, a parallelepiped or other geometric form. To solve the puzzle, the puzzler must arrange the cubes to create a predetermined design or visual format utilizing the visual material appearing on a plurality of the cubes' exterior surfaces. Some puzzles have more than one solution, i.e., more than one predetermined arrangement of the individual pieces exists, with each arrangement resulting in a different predetermined design or visual format.
The puzzles disclosed in these references, as well as other three-dimensional puzzles, only utilize, as part of the puzzle's solution, the visual material on a plurality of the exterior surfaces of the geometric shapes or forms which make up the pieces of the puzzle. My invention, however, requires the puzzler to arrange the individual geometric shapes or forms on or adjacent to a mirror or reflective surface and incorporate into the solution of the puzzle the images of the visual material on the surfaces of said geometric shapes or forms which appear in the mirror or reflective surface.